I’ve been watching the three exhibition matches between Pete Sampras and Roger Federer on the Tennis Channel; and since I’m now officially an “old guy”, I was naturally rooting for Sampras. During the first match, Pete looked halfway decent but eventually went down to defeat 6-4, 6-2. In the second match, Pete improved and took Roger to tie breakers in both sets, losing 7-6, 7-6. In the third match, Sampras showed Roger that old time tennis players are still the best, winning 7-6, 6-4.
Sampras is ten years older than Federer and he hasn’t played competitive tennis in five years, but he still has skills that current players don’t even consider. In fact, Missy was watching one of the matches with me and she marveled how nicely Sampras volleyed at the net. She asked why more players don’t serve and volley like Sampras…
there will be streaming video of the matches online at http://www.thetennischannel.com/federer_sampras/index.aspx starting dec. 4th, for those people who don’t have a tennis channel subscription.
I’ll check it out